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Police make arrest after American tourist pushed in front of tram in Cologne

A 26-year-old man was arrested in Cologne on Tuesday on suspicion of attempted murder, after an American teenager was pushed in front of a tram in Cologne the day before.

Published: 26 July 2017 10:13 CEST

Police make arrest after American tourist pushed in front of tram in Cologne

A tram in Cologne. Photo: DPA

The 18-year-old tourist was standing waiting for a tram at the central station in the west German city on Monday. As the tram approached, she was attacked violently and unexpectedly from behind, according to police.

Luckily she escaped with only light injuries, as she fell onto the platform rather than onto the tracks in front of the vehicle.

A 26-year-old man was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of attempted murder. The homeless man was detained in the Neumarkt district after an eyewitness account led police to identify him.

After the attack, both attacker and victim boarded the oncoming tram. The American teenager got out a few stops later to inform the police.

“As far as we know, there had been no contact between the two before the incident,” a police spokesman said.

Prosecutors are now investigating the man for attempted murder.

Ancient Jewish settlement to be brought back to life in Cologne

The site of the construction in Cologne. Photo: DPA

If you are a tourist walking through the centre of Cologne, sooner rather than later, you'll come across a construction site located in the very best position, in the middle of the town hall square.

At the beginning of this millennium, the people of Cologne dug into the earth directly in front of their historic city hall and found a treasure from another millennium: the Jewish quarter.

Complete with a dance hall, a hospital, a bakery and a synagogue, the quarter contains the ruins of a settlement from the Middle Ages. It is a city within a city, a miniature world of houses huddled together.

Of course, all that is left is ruins – one needs a bit of imagination to picture how the whole thing once looked. But experts from Germany and abroad agree: there's nothing like it anywhere else in the world.

Ancient tradition

No other German city has been associated with Jewish history for so long as Cologne.

The first documented Jewish community dates back to the year 321, making it the oldest north of the Alps.

But in 1349, the neighbourhood was destroyed and its inhabitants were murdered or expelled. Local Christians blamed Jews for the outbreak of the plague.

Currently, a museum is being built over the site on the town hall square. It will be a parallel world underground: visitors will be able to relive life in the Jewish quarter in the era of knights and minstrels on a 600-meter-long trail. The trail also visits the governor's palace from Roman times, which was rediscovered in the 1950s.

The museum is called MiQua after the name for the Jewish ritual bath, Mikveh.

Exhibits will include artifacts found during the excavations; among them is a crescent-shaped, gem-set gold earring from the 11th century.

The researchers also discovered a tablet dating back to the Middle Ages with the inscription “yt in ys neyt anders.” This could be translated as “Et is wie et is” (It is as it is) – a classic Cologne saying.

The museum is scheduled to open in 2024, but through the panorama windows on the third floor of the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, also located on Rathausplatz, one can already follow the progress of construction work.

This year Jewish life will be celebrated across the country – the anniversary year '1,700 years of Jewish life in Germany' will be celebrated nationwide.

Hamburg is organising a themed week entitled 'More than Little Jerusalem'; in Nuremberg the photo exhibition 'Germany's Emigrants' will be opened; and in Herxheim in Rhineland-Palatinate the play Judas by Lot Vekemans will be staged.

READ MORE: 9 hilarious gifts Judaism gave the German language

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